RIVER OR LIFE: Defensive Midfielders

The voting for attacking midfielders has gone pretty much as anticipated so far, with heavy support for three fan favorites in Quaranta, Pontius, and Barklage, and an obvious dissatisfaction with Fred and Allen. The only moderate surprise to me has been that Gomez and Szetela are not both closer to the 50/50 mark. Moving on now to the other half of the midfield...

As expected, Clyde Simms led the team in minutes played for the second year in a row, and was a critical part of our midfield. Obviously Simms' main role was in breaking up the attack of our opponents, but he wasn't asked to do as much offensively this year, which was a step down from his 2 goals and 2 assists in 2008.

poll by twiigs.com

After playing just 15 minutes last season, Ben Olsen came back stronger than most of us would have imagined in 2009. Although he seems to have lost some pace, Olsen's calmness and high soccer IQ served the team well as he often acted as the leader of the midfield. He has expressed interest in playing again next season. Now if we could just work on that temper...

poll by twiigs.com

At just 20 years of age, Rodney Wallace showed immense talent and potential in his 25 starts (tied for third on the team). Wallace split time between left wing and defensive midfielder, playing both roles with speed, aggression, and skill, if not always tactical awareness. He might even get more of a chance at left back in the future.

poll by twiigs.com

Returning from an uneventful stint in France, DC United's 2008 second round draft choice Andrew Jacobson played well when given the opportunity to fill in for Olsen or Simms in central midfield. Jacobson also demonstrated that he has the ability to shoot a heluva long ball, but needs to work on his accuracy (8 shots, 1 shot on goal).

poll by twiigs.com

Devon McTavish saw time as a right wing, central midfielder, and central defender this year, but didn't really catch on as a regular player in any of these roles. While he's never been mistaken for the most physically skilled player on the field, McTavish is an asset for his versatility, and has always had a knack for getting himself into good positions, while making very few mistakes defensively.

poll by twiigs.com

The former fourth overall draft pick John DiRaimondo did little to impress for United while playing in early Open Cup matches and earning just 45 minutes of MLS action. On the plus side, he did score the game winning goal for the Richmond Kickers in the USL-2 championship match. Is it possible that he'll be spending even more time with them next year?

poll by twiigs.com

Award 9: The Etchy

By defintion, the Etchy Award goes to DC United's most valuable player. The winner of the award should be the player who United can least afford to live without, and who gives the team the best chance of winning. I'm going to present this award a bit differently because I want to give you more choices and less bias.

Last year's rightful winner was Jaime Moreno, whose 10 goals and 10 assists set him apart from the rest of the field. It's much harder to make an argument this season for any player to have set himself apart as much as Moreno did in 2008.

1. Jaime Moreno (8 goals, 3 assists, 23 games)
2. Christian Gomez (6, 4, 26)
3. Chris Pontius (4, 3, 22)
4. Santino Quaranta (2, 6, 22)
5. Ben Olsen (1, 1, 19)
6. Clyde Simms (0, 0, 27)
7. Dejan Jakovic (0, 0, 22)
8. Bryan Namoff (2, 4, 26)

poll by twiigs.com

Please enter your votes now through Monday, and remember to post in the comments section to be eligible for the exciting prizes that I announced last week.

Next up: The Benny - Who has been the best player on average this season, as tracked via this blog? Your chance for voting is done. This one is all on me!

Award 8: The Popie

By definition, the Popie award goes to United's best defensive player in 2009. The award's namesake is former national team defender Eddie Pope. Not only is Pope widely recognized as the best defender in United's history, but he is also responsible for the most important goal in United's history.

Last year's winner was Bryan Namoff with over 50% of the vote. It's also telling of DC's defensive struggles in 2008 that the runner-up for this award last year was Devon McTavish, and he had not started a single game in central defense all year until last night.

1. Bryan Namoff is a strong contender to defend his title in 2009 with another great year. He's also contributed to the team with his most productive offensive year to date, with 2 goals and 4 assists.

2. Dejan Jakovic has been the first central defender in years to solidify his position in DC United's lineup, starting every game while healthy. He has exhibited great vision, anticipation, movement, and strength, placing him among the best central defenders in MLS.

3. Clyde Simms may not be a true defender by trade, but he is the team's best ball-winner, and he won the "Defender of the Year" award at last year's team reception.

4. Josh Wicks started 19 regular season games for DC United this year and earned 5 shutouts. His 1.40 goals against average is not among the best in the league, but he appeared to have locked down the starting goalkeeper position for the team before getting injured.

poll by twiigs.com

Please enter your votes now through the end of the season, and remember to post in the comments section to be eligible for the exciting prizes that I announced last week.

Next up: The Esky - Who is United's most valuable player?

DC United win vs Columbus Crew, 1-0

After dropping three straight matches at home to MLS opponents, and with our most consistent defender and our two most dynamic attackers out, most fans didn't really expect DC United to win this match. Especially not against the soon-to-be back-to-back Supporters' Shield winners. And it may not have been an attractive victory, but it was a victory none the less. And it was just what we needed to somehow manage to stay in the playoff race. I'll make the match ratings quick because I want to get to the breakdown of the playoff standings.


1. Steve Cronin in his first match with the team looked completely confident and competent. I wonder what our place in the standings would look like had we acquired Cronin instead of Wicks from the Galaxy in the offseason.

2. Give credit to Julius James and Dejan Jakovic for earning a shut out against the best team in MLS. Luci's goal was nice, but the defense was the real story tonight.

3. Clyde Simms and Andrew Jacobson each played well in central midfield. Simms was all over the field in the first half, and Jacobson was also a strong presense.


1. The early goal from Luciano Emilio may not have looked like much, but it came off of a perfectly timed run to stay onside. Emilio had too many giveaways in the second half though, failing to hold onto the ball when we really needed to maintain possession.

2. Marc Burch had a quiet game tonight, which is better than most of his games recently.


1. Even though the team was playing in a 3-5-2 to specifically take advantage of his talents, Christian Gomez was a complete non-factor in this match.

What's great about the MLS this season is that every single goddamn match in the final week has playoff implications! Even Chicago's playoff position isn't safe. With 42 points, a loss next week combined with a DCU win would put United ahead of them based on our 2-0-1 record against the Fire. The LA-SJ match is the only one that won't necessarily affect a team's playoff status, but will still impact the Galaxy's seeding.

So there are exactly 3 playoff spots still in play, and there is one team at 42 points (Chicago), one team at 40 points (Colorado), and four teams at 39 points. Of the teams in competition, DC owns head-to-head advantages over Chicago and Dallas. We are even with Colorado. And we are at a disadvantage against Real Salt Lake, New England, and Toronto.

What we know for sure is that DC United MUST WIN at Kansas City to have a shot. Also, if any three of Chi/Col/NE/Tor wins, we are definitely out. There's still plenty of scenarios, but here's what I'll be rooting for:

1. Chicago to lose to Chivas on Thursday night
2. Toronto to lose or tie at the Red Bulls on Saturday
3. Colorado to lose or tie at RSL on Saturday
4. Dallas to lose or tie at Seattle on Saturday
5. New England to lose or tie at Columbus on Sunday

So if three of those five things happen, and United wins, we are in the playoffs. Against all odds. It sure felt like our team in 2009 was better than our team in 2008, yet we are somehow right back in the same spot as last year - needing a win in the last week to continue playing.

Benny Award 5: The Grosy

Before we get to the award, an announcement...

Over the next two and a half weeks, we'll be running a contest here with some pretty cool prizes to give away. And to win them, all you have to do is vote for the Benny Awards! The team's hooked me up with the following prizes: a DC United/Volkswagen team scarf, the 2009 DC United media guide, and a Gatorade/MLS towel. To enter, you just need to post in the Comments section, and somehow identify yourself. You can identify yourself either by posting with a public Google account so I can see your email address when you comment, or sign your comment with your email address, or just send me an email at dcu.umd[at]gmail.com to let me know which comment is yours. Yeah its that easy. There are 6 awards left including this one, and you can vote once per award, so that's 6 chances to win!

I will be giving out the prizes after the last regular season match as follows:

The Gatorade/MLS towel will go to the funniest/most creative comment.
The 2009 media guide will go to the most convincing/intelligent comment.
The DCU/VW scarf will go to a comment chosen completely at random.


Now let's get down to business.

By definition, the Grosy Award goes to the DCU player who you think of as a warrior. To the guy who isn't afraid to lay his body on the line, play through injuries, and do whatever it takes to win. The award's namesake is Josh Gros, whose soccer career actually ended way too early because he was exactly the type of warrior that I just described.

Last year's winner was Santino Quaranta, who was frequently seen playing with a cast on his arm, and played through multiple injuries throughout the year.

1. Luciano Emilio is nominated mainly for his performance at Marathon in the opening CCL match, in which he literally split his head open while scoring. He returned to the field moments later and played the remainder of the match with a bandage.

2. Clyde Simms and Dejan Jakovic each took just about 3 weeks to recover from hernia surgery, an operation that cost Marcelo Gallardo half his season in 2008.

3. Ben Olsen has issues with both of his ankles, his knees, his chest hair, and probably more. Yet after sitting out all but 15 minutes last season, he is back with a vengeance and fighting for the team with every minute that he spends on the field.

4. Greg Janicki got back spasms from sitting on the bench too long and was placed on injured reserve.

poll by twiigs.com

Please enter your votes now through the end of the season, and remember to post in the comments section to be eligible for prizes.

Up next: The Freddy. What has been DC United's biggest story this year?

DC United win vs Marathon, 3-0

This win was exactly what we needed. Nothing will inspire confidence in a team fighting for playoff position like a multiple goal victory in which we were clearly the better team.

The offense is clicking, and oh yeah, that's 3 shutouts in our last 4 matches. With a makeshift backline at that. Is it possible that DC United is peaking at exactly the right time? In 2006 and 2007 we peaked too early and faded late in the regular season, only to bust out of the playoffs before advancing out of the Eastern Conference. With the talent that this team has up front, and with Jakovic and Burch both hopefully to return to the starting lineup on Sunday, I see no reason why we can't be one of the leading contenders to reach MLS Cup.


1. When Luciano Emilio is hot, he's hot. How's that for analysis? Within the first 10 minutes of the match, Luci was getting chances, but missing them. In the second half, he just didn't know how to miss. His first goal came from a well directed header off a John cross, and the final goal was all Emilio, beating the Marathon keeper 1v1.

2. I'm not sure if DC was poised to pull away in the second half already, but the insertion of Jaime Moreno couldn't have hurt. He got off to a slow start, but his goal was just classic Moreno. He is still one of the best in MLS in that position in front of the goal because he is just so cool and collected.

3. So a 4-4-2 formation with two attacking wingers and two holding midfielders? I think this is what a lot of us had envisioned when United moved away from the diamond 4 midfield, but it's never looked as good as it looked tonight. The combination of Chris Pontius on the left and Santino Quaranta on the right is perfect for this formation. Pontius started the sequence that led to the first goal with a run up the left side, and Quaranta's smart touch to Moreno earned him an assist on the second. These two should be starting in these positions for the remainder of the MLS season. It's telling that Fred wasn't even on the 18-man roster.

4. Avery John and Lawson Vaughn both played well as our two fullbacks. John conjured up his inner Burch on his assist to Emilio for the first goal, and also shut down every attack on that side of the field. In his United debut, Vaughn certainly didn't look like a guy playing his first match in 2009, and he did well in replacing the unreplaceable Namoff.

5. Give credit to Josh Wicks, Julius James, and Clyde Simms for earning 3 clean sheets in our last 4 matches.


1. I didn't quite understand the removal of Tiyi Shipalane before halftime, but it seemed to work in Soehn's favor. Shipalane performed well getting forward, as I think we all expected against an inferior opponent. It probably won't be until next season that we get to see what he can do against another MLS team.


None.

In the Insider's poll earlier this week, only 23% of voters predicted that United would advance in the Champions League. Now all it will take next week is a United victory at home over SJJ and a Toluca victory on the road over Marathon. Both are very likely at this point, and then all that will be left will be a meaningless faceoff between the B teams of DC and Toluca, with both having already clinched a spot in the next round. The quarterfinals won't be held until the week before the start of the 2010 MLS season, so no need to worry about fixture congestion at this point. It will be tough to advance further than that, but I think most United fans would be satisfied with the progress of at least moving past the group stage.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The more important match is this weekend against San Jose, who have already done us a lot of good by tying the Rapids twice in the last week. Look for United to put out the strongest starting lineup we've seen in months on Sunday. A win is all we need, but I think I'll be surprised if we win by anything less than 2 goals.

Benny Award 1: The Richie

By definition, the Richie Award goes to the most underrated player on the United roster. The award's namesake Richie Williams was probably the hardest working player on our championship teams in the 90s, but flew mostly under the radar when compared to the better known players.

Last year’s winner by a wide margin was Clyde Simms, earning over 50% of the vote. This year’s nominees are:

1. Clyde Simms continues to be one of the best defensive midfielders in MLS, while still going virtually unnoticed in the national scene. Simms is a great ball-winner, and this year has even done well when occasionally forced to take on a new role as central defender and leader of the back line.


2. Bryan Namoff was the runner-up for this award last year, and has very quietly had his most productive season ever with two goals and four assists, all while being our most consistent defender. It still makes no sense to me that Namoff is repeatedly passed up for USMNT duty in favor of guys like Marvel Wynne.


3. Marc Burch earns his first Benny Award nomination by virtue of being the lowest rated DC United starter in the eyes of most fans. But does he deserve to be rated higher? Burch has improved defensively every year since being converted to a left back, his left foot continues to be a weapon when serving long crosses in from the back, and let’s not forget the Burchie bomb, which earned him a goal against Dallas just a couple weeks ago.
   
4. Jaime Moreno owns the record for most career goals in MLS, but this year he hasn’t really gotten the respect that he deserves, even from the coaching staff. Moreno has only started 10 games so far this season, but he is still second place on the team with 7 goals (just 2 behind Emilio, who was started 20 games). Sure, some of those goals may have come from penalty kicks, but Moreno has scored 2 more goals than Blanco this year, and has the same number of goals and assists as Ching, yet he only gets a fraction of the national media attention that they get.
   

poll by twiigs.com

Please enter your votes now through the end of the season, and feel free to argue for your choice in the comments section.

Up next: The Nelly – What new addition has made the biggest impact for United this year?

Clyde Simms versus Julius James

I started writing this as a reply to the comments in the last match reaction, but I figured this discussion worthy of its own posting, and what better format to use than my infamous Versus feature.

The theory here is that one of these two players will be starting next to Dejan Jakovic when the Canadian returns from hernia surgery. The team has apparently fully abandoned the 3-5-2 formation, as they rightfully should have, and our regular center back pairing in Jakovic's absense has been Simms and James. So which one should start next to Jakovic for the final few weeks of the season (and maybe the playoffs??)? Let's look at what each one brings to the table:

Clyde Simms has been one of our most consistent players over the past three years, and brings a much higher soccer IQ to the backline than does James. He may not be the same physical specimen as James, but he should bring better positional sense, while still having the speed and strength to keep up with the better attackers in the league. My initial concern with using Simms at CB is that we lose his ball-winning ability at CDM, but that doesn't seem to be as big a concern anymore since Rodney Wallace has really stepped up to fill that role while Simms has been playing deeper back. So the argument against Simms then is Fullback's point that with Simms and Jakovic you have two players who like getting forward into the midfield too much to close down attackers early. My rebuttal is that with Simms and Jakovic, we have two intelligent and experienced players who should know when to go forward and when to stay home. I feel like when one of them moves forward, the other will always be smart enough to stay home.

Julius James is probably one of the two or three most physically gifted players on the team. He's faster than Simms, he's bigger and taller than Simms. James definitely has potential, as Fullback pointed out. But the time to get him more seasoned is not the final 4 games of the season. I'm all for bringing James back in 2010 and letting him compete for a starting job at that point, but for the remainder of this season, I want the two best players RIGHT NOW playing this spot. One of United's biggest problems in 2007 and 2008 was that they suffered from mental errors. Whether our backline was McTavish-Boswell or Peralta-Janicki, we had a tendency to play well for about 88 minutes of a match, but give up a goal or two thanks to some isolated mistakes. We've already seen the same thing happen with Julius James starting.

I'm not saying that Clyde Simms should be starting at central defense long term. He's just too good a defensive midfielder to permanently convert. But for the remainder of the 2009 season, I'm all for starting our best 11 players. And I don't think James is in that best 11 right now. My best 11 looks like this:

Yeah I've still got Emilio at top. That might be an argument for another day ;)

DC United win at San Juan Jabloteh, 1-0

This 1-0 win reminded me a bit of another 1-0 win less than a week ago against the Wizards. United was clearly the better team, and our defense did well in shutting down some opportunities, but a big part of the victory can also be attributed to a weaker team failing to get any quality shots on target. You could say that they fredded away all their chances. Meanwhile, DC went up early on a converted penalty kick but failed to score for the rest of the match.

For only traveling to T&T with 16 players, Soehn apparently decided to take this match seriously because we started the 11 best players we had. But with several guys playing outside their best positions, they were not able to leverage their talents into very much chemistry.


1. He disappeared for long stretches of the match, but Christian Gomez scored our only goal, almost scored another on a header only kept out by a pretty good save from the SJJ keeper, and should have had an assist when he found Shipalane in space late in the match.

2. Clyde Simms was once again the more competent of our two central defenders. So with Wallace filling in at CDM adequately, and Olsen and Jacobson now both healthy enough to share time, what are the chances that Simms will remain in central defense even after Jakovic returns from injury? A Simms/Jakovic combination might have the highest soccer IQ of any other central defense in the league. It's definitely something to consider heading into the final playoff run, and would at least cut down on the mental errors that we've seen from James.

3. Devon McTavish reminds me sometimes of a poor man's Namoff. He made some good defensive plays, sent in some excellent crosses, and pops up in the box every once in a while with a chance on goal. It would have been easy to assume that McTavish was playing RM for how much ground he covered on that side of the field, and he was often more involved in the attack than Szetela.


1. Some tense moments due to the play of Milos Kocic, Julius James, and Avery John. Kocic is a competent shot-stopper, but he struggles with his decision-making. James and John each had too many giveaways, but were very good defensively to help us preserve the clean sheet.

2. It's not his best position, but Chris Pontius filled the left wing role very well. He ran at defenders, and also got back defensively when necessary. I see no reason why Fred should start at LM while Pontius is on the bench ever again.


1. For all the fans who have been calling for Danny Szetela to start, do you still think this guy is our future? I don't want to put too much weight on a single performance since he hasn't played a meaningful game in several weeks, but this match certainly did not give me the impression that Soehn was wrong to bench him. The knowledgeable Chest Rockwell suggests that Szetela would have done better in the middle, so I guess I'm willing to give him one more chance.

2. In his first DC United appearance, Tiyi Shipalane missed a chance to put us up 2-0 by hitting a weak shot straight at the keeper late in the match. I don't think that playing a forward at the top of a 4-4-1-1 is going to be Shipalane's best position though. I'd like to see him playing out a bit wider next time. But mainly, I'm just extremely disappointed that he chose to wear his shorts properly.

So... um... Is it just me or do we actually have a shot at advancing in the CCL this year? If Toluca beats Marathon tomorrow, we'll be only a home victory over Marathon next week away from second place. Is that enough for us to shift our focus away from league play to try to advance in the CCL? Not in the least. But we played well against Marathon in Honduras for about 80 minutes until we janicked away our shot at a road tie. After that though, it's back to reality with a must-win home match against the Quakes next weekend.

Check back in tomorrow for a big announcement here at DCUMD. Until then, let me know in the comments section what you think about my proposed Namoff-Simms-Jakovic-Burch back line?

DC United tie at FC Dallas, 2-2

So my DVR inexplicably taped nothing but a black screen, and calls to Comcast expectedly got me nowhere (their proposed solution: turn it off and turn it back on). So this reaction will be based solely on MLSnet highlights and comments in the Insider.

With our remaining schedule chock full of home matches, a tie on the road is certainly not the end of the world. And we're now technically in the playoffs if the season ended today (tied with New England and Chivas, but with a better goal differential) although there are several teams who have played less matches than us. So the overall result is fine. What is troublesome though is that we SHOULD be better than FC Dallas. Outside of Cunningham, we're a much more talented team. But from what I saw, these two teams were fairly evenly matched. And since FCD are not a playoff team, that's not good.


1. Our most dangerous player on the field was Santino Quaranta. He's really starting to put this team on his back and emerge as a leader for the younger generation of players. It's questionable whether that should have been a penalty kick when Tino was taken down in the box, but the ref certainly didn't have a good enough angle to be able to say that he dived, so it was well earned in my opinion.

2. Marc Burch hit three awesome free kicks in a row, each with a good chance at scoring. The first two resulted in chances for rebounds, and the third one went in. The good thing about hitting free kicks low is that they don't go over the bar that way. This might sound obvious, but it would be a lesson well learned for other players.


1. Interesting choice by Soehn to put Clyde Simms in as a central defender. At least he was the better of our two central defenders this night. I remember the team trying Simms as an outside back in 2007, but has he ever started as a CB before? Still not sure why McTavish hasn't played as a defender all year.


1. Joining Janicki and Habarugira in the list of defenders who have had a terrible match in the past month, please welcome Julius James. He was responsible for both goals, gave up another shot to Cunningham which went off the post, and could have been called for a penalty kick.

2. So what did you guys think of Tom Soehn's 4-6-0 formation? My back line would have been Namoff-James-Burch-John, but having Simms in there instead was fine defensively. The problem then though is that you lose Simms' ball winning skills in the midfield. This lineup was essentially 3 true defenders, 4 defensive midfielders, and 3 attacking midfielders. Not a winning combination, and not what in line with my recommendation. I mean it's fine to have a global strategy of going for 3 points at home and 1 point on the road, but did we really have to make it this obvious?

Well that's all I got from the five minutes of highlights. Anyone who watched the game care to elaborate more?

Next week brings two home league matches for us, first against the Wizards on Wednesday (college discount night) and then a rematch against the Sounders on Saturday (social sports night). Anything less than 4 points next week would be extremely disappointing, and 6 points is very possible as well.

DC United lose to Seattle Sounders, 2-1

We win trophies. But not all the time.

Great atmosphere at the stadium. My section was in between the Barra Brava and the Seattle supporters, and it was cool listening to the fans trying to out-sing each other. The fans in the sections who don't normally stand and sing were all standing and singing a lot more than usual.

I hate to say it but I guess the Sounders deserved to win. Which is disappointing after all the trash we talked. But Seattle won a trophy in their first chance just like DC United did. Now if they can just win 13 more, maybe they'll have an argument at being the greatest club in MLS.

1. Clyde Simms was in the right place at the right time to score DC's only goal.

1. Josh Wicks was the reason we were still in this match through 70 minutes, but then he was also the reason why we didn't have a good chance to get back into it after we went behind. Wicks looked like a superhero in the first half with all those great saves, but it was absolutely inexcusable for him to stomp on Montero afte giving up the goal. We learned from the Blanco incident last year that MLS will not suspend players for their actions in the Open Cup, but I wonder if United benches him temporarily as punishment.

1. I'm not going to make up my mind as to what I think Tom Soehn's fate should be until after the season is over, and neither will ownership, and neither should you. But this loss certainly makes it much more likely that he will not make it into 2010 as our head coach. His only chance at this point is to win the Eastern Conference Championship. Numerous issues with Soehn's starting lineup. If you were following me on Twitter, you'd know that my starting lineup included Wallace and Quaranta ahead of Olsen and Moreno, and I stand by that. This team is best when Quaranta is playing right wing and Pontius is playing forward. When is the coaching staff going to realize that? And at some point, Moreno and Olsen are no longer to be among our best 11 players. I'm not exactly sure if that point has come yet, but I'm also not certain if the coaching staff is going to be willing to start either of these guys on the bench when necessary. The other issue was the formation. It became clear to me about 15 minutes in that the 3-man backline was not working. But the team made zero adjustments. And I didn't feel like having a fifth midfielder was doing us much good either. Makes you wonder what the lineup would have looked like if Julius James was available.

2. FREDSUX

3. I wonder if the game would have gone into overtime at 1-1 if Wicks was still in instead of Milos Kocic on the second goal. He's much less decisive and doesn't distribute effectively either.

4. The free kicks of Christian Gomez were a constant disappointment. For as many chances as he had, I would have expected at least a couple shots on goal.

That's all. Time to concentrate on the league. As with any professional sports team, DC United has a tendency to let us down immediately following an emotionally draining match like this one. It will be up to Soehn to make sure that doesn't happen on Saturday. And then we actually have a full week off (!) before we get a chance for revenge against the Sounders.

DC United win at Chicago Fire, 1-0

This is the best our team has looked in quite a while. DC United just worked harder in this match, which is great to see. We won most of the 50-50 balls tonight, which has been rare the past few months. The team's first win against an MLS opponent since 7/18 couldn't have come at a better time.

The only thing I didn't like about our performance was the number of fouls given in close range. It continues to be part of Chicago's strategy to go down at the smallest hint of contact near the box. We were a bit lucky that Blanco didn't test Wicks more in his numerous chances.


1. Bryan Namoff continues to have maybe his best season, playing quite well on defense, and adding his second goal of the year on a header from a Gomez free kick.

2. I had my doubts about starting Ben Olsen at right wing against the very underrated Marco Pappa, but he did great, and it turned into a bit of a fluid role as he was moved into central midfield towards the end of the first half. Olsen looked awesome going forward, and came pretty close to scoring on a Burch to Quaranta cross in the 62nd minute. I could almost hear the "YEESSSS!" before the ball went just wide.

3. The reason that the 4-4-2 looked so good in this match was because Clyde Simms was doing the job of two defensive midfielders. Dude was all over the place!

4. Julius James and Dejan Jakovic were an excellent combination as the center backs. James broke up several plays, and gave Jakovic the freedom to advance the ball into the midfield, as he often does so calmly. James was the leading offender of commiting fouls near the box though, so that's something to keep our eyes on.


1. Give some credit to some of the other attackers like Christian Gomez, Fred, Santino Quaranta, and Luciano Emilio. These guys worked tirelessly to make sure it wouldn't be easy for the Fire to advance the ball out of the midfield, and made some defensive contributions too. The chemistry among our entire team was clearly evident tonight.


None

Notice the only two starters I'm not rating are Josh Wicks and Marc Burch. The feud between these two guys had me worried for a minute. We already knew that both of these guys are sort of hotheads. But is it really a problem for two passionate guys to go at it like that? I have no doubt that they will work it out in the locker room, but we'll all be watching for comments on the Goffblog.

I've been ragging on referees a lot lately, so let me point out that this was a really well officiated match by Kevin Stott. We probably deserved all of our yellow cards, and he kept control of a match between two teams that have broken into fisticuffs in previous meetings. My only complaint comes from the time keeping. Four minutes of stoppage time when there weren't any injuries?

I don't know if we could have picked a better time to beat a tough Eastern Conference opponent on the road. We've finally broken our long winless streak. But more importantly, now we've got some momentum going into the Open Cup Final on Wednesday. Look for our best eleven to start this match. I've got my tickets. Do you?

DC United lose to Toluca, 3-1

I had my doubts about this lineup going in because it just seemed way too defensive. I'm in favor of continuing with the 4-4-2 formation for the duration of this tournament, but my vision of a 4-4-2 involves attacking wingers, and maybe a creative attacking central midfielder. McTavish and Allen aren't really what you think of in terms of attacking wingers, and Andrew Jacobson isn't really the most creative CAM either.

This would have been the perfect match for Danny Szetela. I understand he's in the doghouse, and obviously Coach Soehn knows more about why than any of us so I give him the benefit of the doubt, but it really would have been nice to see his creative skills on the field in place of any one of the previously mentioned midfielders. And if not Szetela, either Gomez, Fred, or Quaranta should have started this match. Oh yeah, and I guess Ely Allen is ahead of John DiRaimondo on the depth chart for now? I guess that might have changed after this match.

As for the back line, I'm fine with Namoff-Jakovic-Burch as our top lineup and Habarugira-James-John as our B squad. I'm also perfectly fine with Marc Burch as a CB in a four-man back. But if we have to add one of the A squad members to the B line each match, do we really want it to be Burch? Why is Burch more capable than Jakovic or Namoff at playing two matches per week?

As I stated, I liked the four-man back line. But from the 28th minute on, I was calling for Gomez to come in for Habarugira. Dude as AWFUL.


1. I've said before that some of DC United's best moments in 2009 have come from the combination of Santino Quaranta and Chris Pontius. These two immediately connected for a goal as soon as the Phoenix entered the match. I wonder if Soehn has been misusing these two in the regular season when he often puts Quaranta up top and Pontius on the right wing. It really should be the other way around.


1. Goal-saving play by Julius James in the 80th minute, and pretty consistently good defense throughout the match. It looked like he might have been the competent backup CB we've been looking for, that is until the deflection that led to the third goal.

2. There have been some mentions on this blog and others about the seemingly increasing number of giveaways from Clyde Simms this year. Well if you watch him closely, you'll see that he wins more balls than he loses. And winning balls is what the man is paid to do.


1. I've been a little bit of a Greg Janicki apologist over the past week, because I have tendency to believe that his terrible match against Marathon was more of an aberation than the norm. Because we've seen better from him before. Thefore I believe that the mistake by David Habarugira that resulted in an early goal for Toluca was much worse than the mistake by Janicki that resulted in an early goal for Marathon. Janicki's error seemed like more of a fluke mistake. I just don't get the impression that Habarugira knows any better! Maybe Wicks should have done better to call him off, but there's no way that goal would have happened with Namoff or Jakovic in that position instead. Habarugira also made several bad passes, left a man unmarked at the back post that led to a free header on goal in the 33rd minute, and earned a really bad yellow card early in the second half. I wonder which defender will have an awful match in our next Champions League appearance? My money is on Avery John.

2. Josh Wicks is usually pretty vocal, but I didn't see or hear him yelling "KEEPER!" to Habarugira on the first goal. He also misplayed the ball in the 80th minute, forcing a great goal-saving tackle by James. And the third goal was a bit unlucky, but if I'm going to blame any player for it, I might put some blame on Wicks.

3. Marc Burch got beat on the winning goal, plain and simple.

4. Removing Ely Allen at the 33 minute mark was more than just a tactical substitution in my mind, as the commentator suggested. I just can't think of one positive contribution that he made. At least it was good to see that it only took Soehn one third of the match to realize how poor his starting lineup was.

5. The more I think about it, the more I'm against the starting lineup used by Tom Soehn in this match. I've been definitively and consistently against the "Fire Soehn" crowd for all of 2009. This is the first match when I've began to consider how much longer I want him coaching this team. I just don't see how this lineup really had any chance of winning.

The next week and a half might be the most important of the season for us. Our road match against Chicago on Saturday is winnable. If they can lose 2-0 to the Beckham-less and Lewis-less Galaxy last week, I think we have a good chance of earning at least a point. And then Wednesday is of course the Open Cup Final (now offering $10 student tickets!), which has suddenly become the most important match we'll play in 2009 based on our nascent rivalry with the Sounders. The week ends with another winnable road match against FC Dallas. Earlier this week I wrote about how a long line of poor officiating has kept us from earning points this year. Now would be a really nice time for kharma to pay us back and shoot some luck in our direction for once.

DC United win vs Colorado Rapids, 3-1

After a first half consisting of two major mistakes (Namoff's own goal and Khumalo's terrible chip shot miss), United was a bit unfortunate to be down a goal. The teams looked very evenly matched. But from the moment that the whistle blew to open up the second half, one team was clearly better than the other. What did Tom Soehn say to the players that so inspired that passion? Who knows. But I do know one thing he said: "Jaime - you're in". And that might have been the biggest factor contributing to the victory.


1. Even before the third goal, I was ready to come on here and write about the wonderful interplay between Luciano Emilio and Fred. Emilio did really well with his back to the goal and with multiple defenders on him to hold up the ball and distribute back to teammates. He was frequently getting into dangerous spots, and his goal was well earned by the team. Fred looked the best he's looked on the wing in quite a while, with some good crosses, and even won the ball a couple times in the defensive third. As Fullback suggested, Fred probably deserved to be ejected though.

2. The resident veterans Jaime Moreno and Christian Gomez once again delivered a huge victory for the club. Gomez was instrumental on all three goals, earning the PK that Moreno ultimately converted, sending in the corner kick for Namoff's golazo, and putting Fred through to get the ball rolling on Emilio's goal. Moreno now has a goal in three consecutive MLS appearances.

3. Colorado's goal and pretty much every one of their chances came from long balls over the top. Credit Clyde Simms for shutting down every attempt in the middle.

4. Not the greatest starting lineup, but Tom Soehn sure did use his substitutes effectively. I didn't quite understand the decision to start Khumalo on the wing ahead of Wallace. But the team made adjustments when necessary, and maybe Moreno is best these days when coming off the bench.


1. This was obviously an up-and-down emotional match for Bryan Namoff. After the huge mistake of an own goal and a few other giveaways in the first half, Namoff unleashed the redemption on a beautiful diving header goal.


1. Really a poor decision by Boyzzz Khumalo to try to chip the ball over the keeper (and over the bar too as it turned out) instead of just taking a low placed shot at either corner. Luckily, this miss didn't change the result of the match, but it sure felt like it would at half time.

So after a well deserved and well needed week off, DC United now sets out on a very compacted portion of the schedule that will see us playing two matches per week for the next three consecutive weeks, including the US Open Cup semifinal on Tuesday (with tickets now discounted through dcunited.com), a home-and-home series in the Champions' League against Firpo, a couple trips to the MLS Western Conference (San Jose and Houston) mixed in, and of course the big matchup against Real Madrid on August 9th.

DC United tie at Columbus Crew, 1-1

A 1-1 tie would have been a pretty good prediction going in, and isn't a bad result for us. But it feels good to say that this team deserved better. DC United dominated in scoring opportunities, with 11 shots on goal to Columbus's 3. But they were a bit more effective at converting their few opportunities, as we let the Crew off the hook far too often with failed chances and weak shots straight at the keeper. After we missed out on scoring so often early in the second half, I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt a Crew goal was coming soon.

This is a tough part of the schedule, with a lot of multigame weeks coming up, and not the best time to be missing four starters in Moreno, Emilio, Quaranta, and Jakovic. But to be fair, Columbus was also missing their best defender in Chad Marshall and a dynamic midfielder in Robbie Roberts. We were the better side tonight. Which makes me feel good about our chances if we happen to run into the Crew in a home-and-home playoff series. But that doesn't get us any farther in the standings.


1. The central midfield of Clyde Simms and Ben Olsen was supposed to be a part of our starting lineup all year, but unfortunately seeing them together in the middle of the field has been rare. The new aerodynamically cornrowed Simms was able to go forward more with a trusted holding midfielder next to him, and made two important runs that led to our goal: first a headed shot, and then a run that caused some confusion and knocked over a defender just before Gomez's touch. But maybe the most shocking aspect of this match was Ben Olsen going 90 minutes for the first time in close to two years.

2. Really great team work that resulted in Christian Gomez's goal. Simms to N'Silu to Pontius to Gomez.


1. Remember the two things we thought we learned about Boyzzz Khumalo earlier in the week? That he's not a right wing, and that he's not a starter. Well he started at right wing in this match, but I guess we didn't have too many other choices. Khumalo was once again terrible on crosses, but did well in using his speed to track back a couple times, including one last second shot-saving tackle on Ekpo.

2. Rodney Wallace displayed excellent movement off the ball, putting himself in good spaces. But twice this resulted in shots straight at Hesmer. I'm not exactly sure if it was Wallace's fault that Moreno was so open at the back post for the Crew's goal.

3. Pretty solid match from Greg Janicki filling in for Jakovic. The defense did well to keep the Crew off the board on their many set pieces.


1. I'm not sure whether or not it was a coincidence that the Crew's goal came immediately after Fred entered the match for Khumalo. Fred gave the speedy Ekpo too much space to send in an uncontested cross. With Pontius, Wallace, and Quaranta all playing so well, and now Khumalo also making a strong push, I wonder if Fred might be slipping even farther down the depth chart.

So another strong performance by a United team that remains in sole possession of first place, at least until the end of the Chicago/Colorado match. Also, it's so rare that we talk about decent officiating performances, but that was a very well called match by Baldolermo Toledo.

DC United loss at Colorado Rapids, 3-0

I can't remember the last time I've said this, but this Colorado Rapids team is actually pretty good. And they deserved this win.

Also, I think this might be the first team we've played this year where I'm actually jealous of their defense. Very underrated. And with Colin Clark and Omar Cummings, Colorado has two brewing stars. Speaking of defense though, I'm not sure that this was the best match to bring back back the 4-4-2. Hindsight is 20/20, but I think the 4-4-2 would have helped slow things down a bit in the Seattle match. It certainly wasn't effective here tonight.

And what a big difference between the atmosphere on Wednesday night and tonight. The vast majority of the crowd in Colorado was seated and silent, which is a huge contrast from Seattle. The same can probably be said about the action on the field. The Seattle match was fast-paced throughout. This match was slow and consisted of a lot of giveaways.


1. It seemed like every chance we had on goal came from the head of Chris Pontius. Here's hoping that Quaranta to Pontius will be one of our top scoring options for years to come.

2. I was admittedly harsh on him earlier in the week, but Clyde Simms played well tonight. Most of Colorado's chances came from balls over the top, bypassing the midfield where Simms was roaming.


1. Dejan Jakovic seems to be better suited for the 3-5-2 than the 4-4-2. If he isn't trusting someone else to help cover, he's running all over the place chasing down attackers. The defense was better in the second half.


1. Cummings abused Greg Janicki 1v1 on the first goal. We should all be worried about how the team will cope to the loss of Jakovic to Canada's Gold Cup team.

2. Was Avery John trying to improve his fantasy stats by giving an assist directly to Cummings on the second goal? And he was in no man's land standing in the middle of the box on the third goal, instead of looking to see if someone (Clark) was attacking the back post. John might also be better suited for a 3-5-2, where he played for so many years in New England. Meanwhile, I think Burch is better suited for the 4-4-2, so this lineup didn't really make sense to me. You guys all know where I stand on the Marc Burch versus Avery John debate, but hopefully now we can at least all agree that John is NOT the solution to our persistent problems at left back.

3. I didn't see any game changing saves from Josh Wicks in this one.

4. Ange N'Silu looked disinterested, and really not a part of the team. I counted three times in a row that he gave the ball straight to the Rapids on his first touch, and two times he should have made a run if he was correctly reading a play, but did not. We really thought this guy was better than Francis Doe?

Alright so United just didn't have it tonight. A tired team going up against a well-rested team in high altitude isn't a great excuse for a less than energetic effort, but the result wasn't entirely surprising. United was shut out only one time in the first half of the season. Let's hope this is the only time they get shut out in the second half.

DC United tie at Seattle Sounders, 3-3

"What an advertisement this has been for Major League Soccer here tonight". I heard Glenn Davis speak that line twice during the broadcast, once in the 68th minute on ESPN2, and once before the game was being shown on television (thanks atdhe.net). At first I was thinking that that was a terribly hypocritical thing to say. That if ESPN really wanted to advertise MLS, they might think about broadcasting the entire game. But then I realized that ESPN was just thinking of that literally. They treated this match as if it were nothing but "an advertisement". It was 11:55pm ET when ESPN2 joined this game in progress. That's when cable stations are usually showing Paid Programming right? But then later from Allen Hopkins I heard "This is exactly what MLS was hoping for." Really? MLS was hoping ESPN2 would only show 30 minutes of this match?

And that's really a shame. A high scoring match between the two most exciting teams in MLS, playing in undoubtedly the stadium with the best atmosphere in MLS, is the type of match that should be shown in HD in primetime on national television. It's a shame that ESPN doesn't agree. With hockey and basketball done for the year, and the NFL still a couple months away, sports fans are dying for something exciting to watch. The College World Series doesn't qualify. It would really be in ESPN's best interest to treat soccer as if it were a major sport, but I don't see this country's perception of soccer changing until the media's coverage of soccer changes.

OK let's actually talk about the match some. I'll be honest, I actually went into this one expecting a loss. After an emotional victory over the supposed best team in the league Chicago last week, I figured it would be hard to keep up that momentum. And I was right for most of this match. But then... In the match that concludes the first half of United's 2009 campaign, as we've seen so many times already this season, we stormed back. Thanks to some continuous pressure up top, Sigi's decision to take his foot off the pedal, and a little bit of luck.


1. Right now Christian Gomez is playing the best he's played in two years. Here's hoping that he is healthy enough to start on Saturday. He sure looked like he will be.

2. Chris Pontius was our only attacker who looked dangerous for all 90 minutes.

3. What a perfect cross by Santino Quaranta to set up Pontius's goal. That would be his 6th assist of the season, putting him in second place in the league, and just 1 behind Brad Davis.


1. I think it might be time to start counting the number of points that we owe to Josh Wicks. I count 1 in the tie against RSL, 2 in the win against Chicago, and now 1 tonight. Wicks could have done better on the second goal, but didn't have much of a chance on the other two. He had several great saves to keep us in it.


1. Dejan Jakovic and Marc Burch seemed to feed off each other's mistakes. This was the worst performance by the DC defense this season, by far. These two need to wash their memories of this match quickly, because I'm expecting much better this weekend.

2. The link between the defense and midfield was missing tonight. That would be Clyde Simms and Andrew Jacobson. After this match, I'm officially moving Devon McTavish up above Jacobson on my depth chart.

3. I didn't like Tom Soehn's lineup from the start. I figured that if Ben Olsen is healthy enough to play only one out of the two games this week, it should be this one. And we definitely missed his leadership out there tonight. But my bigger issue with Soehn was bringing in N'Silu when Fred had to come off, instead of just making a straight swap with Gomez. I understand occassionally resting Gomez, but if the plan was to bring him on at some point in the second half, why not just move that up instead of wasting a sub?

4. And speaking of that wasted sub, Ange N'Silu was rarely involved in this match, and when he was, he was usually giving the ball away. United has a recent history of cutting its reserve forwards after each season (Addlery, Kpene, Doe), and I doubt 2009 will be any different with N'Silu.

So that's twice as many Rail as Top Shelf players in a road draw? Seems sort of odd, but then again, this point was a bit of a gift. And this is an important stretch of the season where we've got 3 matches in 8 days, and Chicago has none. With the chance to increase our lead in the East, what was the most points we could expect from this two game road trip? 4? 3? Well we're on our way towards that.

DC United tie at Chivas USA, 2-2

Before this match, Bretos and Sullivan were discussing that this might be a potential MLS Cup matchup. And this game didn't really disappoint. You just hate to see such a good match decided by some poor officiating. How come we don't ever see poor officiating in our favor anyway?

DC United showed some heart once again here to be able to come back in the final minutes. Chivas looked like the better team for much of the match, but they really only deserved one of their goals, so 2-2 is a fair result. No one should be surprised that DC United scored more goals on Chivas than any other team has this season. But how come DC continues to allow so many goals to less than stellar offensive opponents?


1. After a really poor first half with a lot of giveaways, it was great to see Santino Quaranta take over in the second, including an assist to Emilio, a goal from 25 yards out, and a salute to his new baby boy.

2. Ah the return of the predator Luciano Emilio. Both of my top shelf guys here were penciled in my rail category after the first half, but scoring goals against the best defensive team in the league is a good way to get yourself out of the cellar.


1. Not a good starting lineup by Tom Soehn, but he redeemed himself because the Fred and Gomez substitutes both paid off. I was not a fan of the 3-2-2-2-1 formation, and the decision to start Olsen when he must have clearly been injured left us short a sub.

2. The more I watch Dejan Jakovic, the more he looks like a top level MLS center back. Yet we give up two or more goals in virtually every match. It sure feels like our back line is better than what we had last year, but that isn't showing in our goal's against column.


1. The rookie of the year candidate Chris Pontius looked terrible in the first half, and was rightfully replaced by Fred at the break.

2. Our biggest problem in the first half was a lack of linkage between the backline and the attacking midfielders. For that, I partially blame our holding midfielders Clyde Simms and Andrew Jacobson. This changed in the second half once Fred and Gomez entered the match.

But the bigger problem overall is our defense. As my comments on Jakovic above indicate, something needs to change on our backline. Even though so many goals given up seem to be from a lucky bounce or poor officiating, we can't keep making excuses, and someone needs to step up.

I'm still not sold on the 3-5-2 being our best formation. It makes sense for this team if only because we have so many good offensive players that you don't want to take another one off the field to make room for a defender. But at the same time, Janicki and McTavish don't deserve to sit on the bench the whole season. Either one of them would match up real well next to Jakovic in a back four. Soehn's excuse to implement the back three before the season was that we'd had a lot of changes, so less players actually improves communication. At this point in the season, communication and chemistry should no longer be an issue. I think it's time to give a traditional 4-4-2 lineup a try, even if only for just a week.

DC United tie vs Toronto FC, 3-3

What an incredible contrast from the previous match. Even though they both ended in ties, this was a much more inspired DC United club, playing against a much more inspired opponent. The match against Kansas City earlier in the week saw two offensive subs (Gomez and Emilio) enter the match and have no impact. This match saw two offensive subs (Moreno and Pontius) enter the match and score two goals.

I watched this match online at the same time as I was the watching the Capitals on mute. Funny coincidence that both games ended regulation at almost exactly the same time, and the score of each at that time was 3-3. Unfortunately for the Caps, it couldn't end that way. But for United, a tie seemed like a fair result to a really exciting match.


1. That was a real nice team setup on the opening goal by Ange N'Silu. His first goal of his MLS career, and a good overall match.

2. Jaime Moreno and Chris Pontius should have started. I'm still trying to figure out who was playing where when we had Moreno, Pontius, Emilio, Gomez, and Quaranta in the match. That's some firepower!


1. Milos Kocic and Dejan Jakovic each had their best halves of the season in the first. Kocic looked comfortable grabbing every cross that entered the box. And Jakovic had several nice tackles, and was calm in distributing out of the back. But their total lack of communication led to the first goal.

2. Bryan Namoff looked good wearing the captain's armband (which was a bit of a surprise since Gomez, Simms, and Emilio have all worn it ahead of him in the past). Namoff is having a fantastic season so far, but his failed toe poke on Toronto's third goal just isn't going to cut it against DeRo.

3. I liked Devon McTavish in central midfield. His left-footed cross helped set up the opening goal. I love how we have competition at just about every position right now. Olsen and Simms are the unquestioned starters at defensive midfield right now, but McTavish put in a strong challenge against Jacobson for the first backup in that slot.


1. This may have been out of character, but I saw too many giveaways by Clyde Simms in this match. And where was he on the last goal?

2. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that Serioux was Rodney Wallace's man to mark on the second goal. Which would mean that's the second time this year he's given up a goal on a free kick.

Five points from three matches in eight days was a couple short of our goal. But this stretch of matches was a huge credit to our early season depth. DC started 19 different players between the two matches this week. Only Namoff, Simms, and Wallace started both. And with KC falling today, and Chicago tying New England, we were still able to hold onto sole possession of first place for at least another week.

DC United tie vs NE Revolution, 1-1

I'm having a real hard time figuring out how to feel about this tie. The ending kind of makes it feel like a win. I can tell you with certainty that that was the loudest I've yelled at my tv this year with Benny scoring a goal in extra time. But apparently the recurring theme of the season to date is earning ties against teams that we are better than.

In the first 45 minutes, we had an absurd amount of possession in New England's half of the field. And unless you're Kenny Cooper, it's pretty hard to score when you can't even get the ball across the halfway line. United was better than the Revolution in every aspect of the field. Except for coaching, and except for goalkeeping. We'll get into each of those more in the player ratings.


1. Our domination in the first half was due mostly to our midfield, led by Clyde Simms and Ben Olsen. It's no coincidence that we ceased to dominate midfield in the second half when Simms came out. Olsen's fire and heart earned us a point in this match. I would pay good money to have heard exactly what Olsen said to Thompson after the goal. Whatever it was, it better have ended with either "boy" or "son".

2. This looked like Jaime Moreno's best match of the season. Even when playing the final 20 minutes with an injury, Moreno became the first player in league history to score 100 goals and 100 assists, and will probably be the only player to do that in the next 20 years.


1. Chris Pontius continues to find himself in excellent scoring position multiple times per match. But he needs to spend all of the next week practicing his finishing. Harkes is right - low to the far post.

2. I'm still unsure on where I stand on Christian Gomez. The team did a much better job at getting him the ball in this match, but his passes were just a step behind too often. Despite this, he created many good opportunities. Christian is good, but he could be better.

3. Contrasting with the first game of the season, Rodney Wallace had a good first half, and a poor second half. And there was a good reason for that. Wallace played on the left wing in the first, and at left back in the second. Even though he played left back in college at Maryland, he seems better in the midfield where his attacking skills can be utilized without exposing his inexperience in defense.


1. Kenny Mansally was Wallace's man, and Shalrie Joseph was Andrew Jacobson's man on New England's goal. Both were open. Jacobson didn't do much after entering for Simms in the second half.

2. I wrote the same thing about Zach Wells last season. Louis Crayton isn't usually at fault specifically on the goals that are scored on him, but that doesn't mean that he shouldn't occassionally save some of them. The Revs only had one good scoring opportunity all game, and they converted on it. Meanwhile, the other side had a keeper who's only started 2 games previously in the MLS, went undrafted two years go, and he came up with several difficult stops.

3. I'm not anywhere close to jumping on the "Fire Soehn" bandwagon yet this season, but I think Tom Soehn cost us two points tonight. The substitution of Jacobson for Simms was unfortunate, but may have been necessary due to Clyde's illness. But subbing out Marc Burch for Santino Quaranta at half time is inexcusable for a lot of reasons. First, it forced Wallace to play a position (left back) that he has never played as a pro. The 3-5-2 can only be effective when the back 3 act as a cohesive unit. That doesn't typically happen when one of them is playing out of position. Secondly, it left us with only one substitute remaining for the final 45 minutes with Gomez, Moreno, and Olsen all still in the match. And thirdly, after dominating the midfield in the second half, why change 40% of your midfield? Hindsight is 20/20, but I would also argue that Devon McTavish would have been a better addition than Jacobson. Lastly, Francis Doe singlehandedly won our last match against the Revs, and he wasn't even on the bench. When the team is struggling to score, Doe would make for a great second half sub.

While writing this post, I almost wrote "win" twice by mistake. So I guess it felt like a win. And after their first five games, DC United is sitting in the middle of the Eastern Conference, on the outskirts of playoff position. Not a terrible place to be, and pretty much just what we expected, but I can't help but think we could do so much better. Next week, we'll take a look back and introduce a new feature to the blog to put the season to date in a different perspective.